And now for something completely different...

So after assailing my ears with Warren Earl's attempt to rock out I decided to take a break and try something new. That and I'd watched Almost Famous this morning. So sit back and enjoy 2 minutes with Dylan Shearer, a Brisbane light techie whose worked with such bands as Spiderbait, Repeat Offender and Seether.

So tell me a bit about yourself?
Haha, what do you wanna know?

Umm, well what's it like being a techie?
It's like being part of a huge family, everyone knows you either from working with you or from people you've worked with. I guess it breeds a certain kind of person; you have to get along with everyone because it's a referral industry. You're only as good as your last job. Fuck it up or piss off the wrong person and suddenly you're the resident sound guy for some back-end nightclub.

Wow, sounds intense! So how'd you get into it?
I guess I always had a passion for music as a kid, as well as being hugely technologically based. But as I got older the pressures of our society got to me, so when I got an OP 1 I felt I had to do the responsible thing and go to university, studying education and IT. But that didn't even last a year. I dropped out, worked as a pizza guy for the rest of the year and then by pure fluke was looking at Tafe classes and someone was like do this, I think you'll like it and here I am.

So it was a lighting course?
No actually, the course focuses mostly on sound, but we did a six week bit on lights and I remember thinking how big a void there is in lighting. It's like the forgotten industry. It doesn't help that there's really only one company doing lights in Brisbane. There's no competition and therefore no interest.

Ah, so you saw a void in the market and thought you could make a name for yourself?
Kinda. And I guess in that way I fucked up. I spend most of my days in the warehouse cleaning and packing away equipment. People think a show is just two hours of music. It's not. It's a week of preparation. Then a 6am start that morning to drive everything over and set it all up. Then you've got to work the show, and finish up by packing up everything. You're lucky if you get done by midnight. And if you're good at your job, you'll have another show on the next night, so you do it all over again.

But surely there's something about it that you love.
Defiantely, don't get me wrong, I hate the other stuff but it's worth it just to be in front of that deck. The feeling is like nothing else.

Tell me about it.
Well, it's not like work, it's more like an art form. With sound you can to some extent tune out of the music and just focus on the mechanics, turn this up, turn that down etc. But with lights it's all intuition, no two light shows are the same. I remember doing lights for a DJ when I'd just started out. You know how they go really quiet and then start building up, the beat getting faster before a big bang? Well the first night I didn't know what I was doing so I didn't strobe to the beat as it started building up, and yer the crowd yelled a bit. But the second night I strobed and the crowd went off, screaming and cheering like it was the show of a life time.

Awesome, well looks like we're out of time. Thanks for chatting to me!
No worries, and if I ever see you at a gig, I'll get you some backstage passes.